


The Embrace of Ahch-To

by PolarPhantom



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character and thought process exploration, F/M, Go read A Prelude To Decline by walnutwhale instead it's way hotter, IX will probably have a better written ending, No Conflict, Possible Episode IX Epilogue, Redeemed Ben Solo, Reylo - Freeform, Smut Hut Redemption Arc, Tags Are Fun, Why you reading my trite wish fulfillment?, but let's face it, fuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 18:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13723860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PolarPhantom/pseuds/PolarPhantom
Summary: Ben Solo muses on his relationship with Rey and the bond they share.





	The Embrace of Ahch-To

Ben watched Rey over the fireplace. She was eating some fish he’d caught and cooked from her bowl. She wasn’t elegant. She was ravenous, scooping, slurping, licking the bowl. Guess life as a starved scavenger leaves its mark. Ben, having long since disciplined himself in almost everything – or so he attempted – was far more restrained when it came to food. Sometimes he wondered when the last time he ate for pleasure was – before the two of them ran away of course.  
“Why do you always watch me eat?” Rey looked back at Ben. “It’s a little off putting.”  
“Why do you think I do it?”  
“Maybe you think it’s gross. Oh, yeah, I see you there with that, that… spoon. Gingerly lifting little bits to your mouth. I bet you never went hungry.”  
“I watch you because I like it. I think you’re cute when you eat and it feels like I get to know you better.”  
Rey blushed a little. “We already know everything about each other.”  
“There’s only so much we can know by looking into one another’s minds.”  
Rey snorted. “Yeah, like what?”  
“We’ve been together for a year now. I think you know.”  
Rey was being stubborn. “Like I now know you like being stubborn about little things.” Rey rolled her eyes.  
“Do you really not like me watching you eat?”  
“Well I can’t say I don’t now, after you said all that. What sort of woman would I be?” She paused and added “It’s a little flattering I guess. But can you really know someone by how they eat?”  
“It’s something I didn’t know from looking into your mind.”

Rey reclined into Ben. His arms crossed her chest. Having her so close, her hair’s scent in his nose, this was one of his favourite times with her. Rey had some paper in one hand and a pen in the other. She was practicing the calligraphy Ben taught her.  
“I can never get it right.” Rey huffed. “This curve here – I can move rocks and bend minds but I can’t even move my hand in the right way with a stupid little – pen!”  
“Hey, I had trouble with this too.”  
“That’s a lie.”  
“Yeah, it’s a lie. I don’t know why calligraphy of all things came so naturally, but it helped calm me down when I was a boy.”  
“Did you ever do it…?” Rey knew she could ask about the harder things, but it still wasn’t easy.  
“No. I didn’t want to be calm back then, when I was fighting. But that’s over now.”

Ben left the First Order. Rey left the Resistance. After a fierce battle with Hux, they defeated him and Rey killed him. They then fled to Ahch-To to try and find a balance. They needed to compromise. And they couldn’t join the other side. This cost Rey more than Ben. She had actual friends as opposed to underlings. But they couldn’t bear it anymore, the separation. They don’t know what happened, to the Rebellion or the First Order. Rey could feel that her friends were alive. That was it. As for balance, they were working towards that. If they found it, they promised they’d return. If not...  
Sometimes, Ben wondered if he was selfish. He took Rey from all her friends because of his need. Then he wondered if Rey was more selfish. He actually had no one he cared about in the First Order. Just those underlings. And Hux. But then Ben wondered if leaving her friends made her more selfish then himself. It was a mutual decision. But they decided to look after their own happiness, at least for now.  
A roar came from a little way away.  
Rey looked up from her practice. “Chewie needs some help.”  
Uncle Chewbacca was waiting just in front of the Falcon. Next to him C3PO and R2D2 were bickering, which never failed to make Ben inwardly chuckle.  
“Oh, so Porgs have got into a small space and you need me to get them out? Yeah, sure.” Rey turned to Ben. “I won’t be long.” And entered his birthright with his dead father’s best friend.  
Rey told Ben Chewie felt obliged to Rey because Han had taken such a shine to her. He’d never leave her. His loyalty was to Han more than the Rebellion, and he had the same loyalty for Rey. He sometimes leaves to visit his family, but all his kids are grown up now, and he has a direct line of contact. Wookiees live long, so looking after humans probably doesn’t seem like a big commitment. As for the droids, C3PO insisted to not leave R2D2 again. “He would not be able to cope without me to make the sensible choices.” Ben thinks C3PO just didn’t want to leave his friend after so much time apart. As for why they’re here, Rey effectively inherited them from Leia - …from his mother. Anyway, it seems they both inherited the droids, in a strange twist of fate.  
“Master Solo, is everything alright?”  
“Hm? Oh, Threepio Yeah. I was just thinking.”  
“Very well, but please remember I am programmed with all known techniques of therapy.”  
R2 made some rapid beebs.  
“I – well I never! You know very well how highly I am regarded in this –“  
“Wait.” Ben interrupted. “You know therapy?”  
“Why of course!”  
“ _…You?_ ”  
Rey came out of the Falcon, Chewie following soon after, with a Porg or three gingerly resting on him.  
“Alright, that’s sorted.” She yawned. “Hey Ben, I’m going to bed.”  
“I’ll catch you up.”

Ben waited at that cliff for an hour or so. _Were it not for our bond, would we be together?_ Ben didn’t blink as he thought these things, fists clenched. _We’re not like normal couples. Mom and Dad they… they told me it took years for them to have their first kiss. It took so long for them to develop a bond, to know each other. But Rey and me, we were just kids when it happened. Even before it happened in fact I always felt it. For so long in my life, probably since she was born. It just took a long time for me to understand it. She felt it too and it took her even longer. But we had such a strong connection, all this understanding of each other’s deepest feelings, fears and secrets. And there’s so much about her, her habits, that I can’t get enough of. The way she eats. The way she smiles and laughs. How she gets flustered with me teaching her calligraphy. I love her line art and would love to learn it myself, but I should teach Rey calligraphy first. She deserves it, surely? Much more than... the man who was Kylo Ren does._

“Are we together because we want to be together, or because the Force wills it?” Ben spoke to the empty air and the churning seas. “If neither of us were strong in the Force, would we still have loved each other?”

He noticed that his palm was stinging. He looked down and realised he was curling his hand into a fist, digging his nails in. He chuckled. “I thought I stopped doing that. Guess not.” He then remembered the other times he had clenched his fist. He remembered that anger – and then let go. His Darkness would never leave him. But Rey… maybe that’s why they were together? The Force knew she was the only thing that could soothe him. He turned back, reaching their hut. They had to rebuild it after Luke… Well, let’s just say Ben was not happy they couldn’t keep testing the bond then and there… see what else they could do to each other from light years away.

Luke. It still stung a little to think of him. He had almost forgiven him. Almost. Rey never brought him up. He wouldn’t mind if she did, but he was glad she cared as much as she did.

He entered the hut. Rey was awake on the bed, tinkering with her Lightsabre, a small light in her mouth. “Hai Bin,” her mouth muffled.

“Not tired?”

“Meh.” She took the light out of her mouth. “I just wanted to work out some kinks. It’s been feeling weird lately.”  
Ben was always impressed how she made that Sabre with such limited materials. He looked at the Sacred Texts she had stolen, on a makeshift book shelf they set up. Combining ancient knowledge with her personal innovations from her scavenger years, she made a beautiful double bladed Sabre recycling some of the old Skywalker one. The rest of it she had given to Ben when they eloped. She tried giving him her own Sabre, but he just told her “it’s as much yours as mine.” Now he thought back to the times she touched his own Sabre. In the Throne Room – just thinking back to then excited Ben – and when she helped him maintain it: “Ben, how this hasn’t blown up in your face I’ll never know.”

He moved a little closer. “Hey, Rey?”

“Yeah?”

“Mind if I take a look?”

“Yeah, sure.” She budged up so he could sit down. Their hands twined around the Sabre, screwing, switching, turning, tightening. Ben looked down at Rey and kissed the side of her head.

“Oh, feeling frisky?”

“I’m not allowed to kiss your head for no reason?”

“No reason?” Her eyebrows rose. “I’m not sure if I should be flattered. Sounds like you think you can 'take whatever you want'.”

Ben snorted. "You always have to bring that up?"

“Hey, Ben,” satisfied with their work, Rey took the Sabre, tucked it away in a drawer, came back to the bed with a pencil and paper.

“I think it’s time you learned how to draw.”

Ben’s eyes opened and he swallowed, lips and jaw moving in that strange way Rey liked. “Are --- Are you sure?”

“You’ve been teaching me how to write. Time to return the favour.”

“But,” Ben was welling up. No, stop Ben. This is a happy day. “I mean, um, what do I draw.”

“Oh, um,” Rey glanced about. “There!” She summoned a pebble to her hand. “This is a good thing to start with. Here, I’ll show you.” She guided his hand as he drew. It took a while, but he got the hang of it. He stopped as he looked at her. She looked at him back. They stared into each other’s eyes.

“Rey,” Ben swallowed again. “I don’t know if we’re together because the Force wanted it or not, but I don’t care. I love you. And every day I wish I could’ve known you my whole life.”

Rey was taken aback, then smiled, “I love you too, Ben.” Ben placed a hand on her abdomen. “How are they?”

“Strong. If they could feel happiness, they definitely would.” 

Rey laughed. She pushed the stationary off the bed and embraced her husband. She stroked his scar on his face while caressed the scar on her arm, all the while kissing him.

There would be no interruptions tonight.

…

Hopefully. If there’s one person who has ruined more intimate moments than Luke, it’s Threepio.

Postscript: The Fish Nuns still hate Rey and they REALLY hate Ben.

Fish Nun 1: They keep me up all night!

Fish Nun 2: And they’re always making a mess.

Fish Nun 3: And what about the Wookiee attack on the Porgs?

Fish Nun 1: He stopped that. Man, why do we put up with those kids?

Fish Nun 3: Because they brought Balance to the Force just like we wanted.

Fish Nun 1:

Fish Nun 2:

Fish Nun 3:

Fish Nun 2: I guess they earned a free pass…

Fish Nun 1: By the way, we’re not Fish Nuns, we’re Bird Nuns!

Bird Nun 3: Now, see, was that so hard?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work posted here. I'm an aspiring writer, so constructive criticism and advice is appreciated.
> 
> I apologise for not mentioning Han and Leia, but this work was bogged down enough in introspection as it is.
> 
> Special thanks to destinies for Tactical Surrender, which inspired me to think on what a Reylo relationship would actually be like, their shared habits and hobbies.
> 
> And thank you for reading and a MASSIVE thank you to all comments and critiques.


End file.
